How Wordspotting works

Signing in asks you two things: the language you want word meanings in, and at least five shows from our catalog that you have already finished.

The finished shows are the part that seems strange, and they are the whole point. They are where your example sentences come from later. Last, you say what you are watching next, and everything before your place is marked as seen.

Add the show you are about to watch, then open the episode. You get the words in it, minus everything you have already marked as known, each one with its meaning in your language and a sentence to see it in.

Tap through them. The ones worth learning go into a pile for tonight, and the ones you already have leave the list for good.

The words you picked become a short sitting for that one episode. A card shows a word, you try to remember what it means, and you say whether you had it. A couple of passes over the words you picked takes a few minutes.

After tonight they are yours rather than the episode's. Each one comes back on its own schedule, a day later, then a few days, then longer as it sticks.

You watch wherever you normally watch. Nothing to install, no second screen, nothing running alongside it.

When you come back, mark the episode watched. It is the only bookkeeping the app asks for, and it pays: this episode's own lines can now explain words in the next one.

A word on its own teaches very little. It needs a sentence around it, and the obvious sentence is the one tonight's episode says, which is exactly the sentence you must not read yet.

So the sentence comes from somewhere else. The app takes a line from something you have already watched, using the word in the same meaning rather than merely the same spelling, and it says where the line came from. Tonight's own lines stay out of sight until you say you have watched it.

When nothing you have seen uses the word that way, the page says so rather than showing you a line that means something different. That is why the app asks for five finished shows at the door, and why the number matters more than it looks.

The home page shows a prepared episode with three of these borrowed lines, if you want to see the shape before you sign in.

Free to start. Adding shows, seeing the words in them and reviewing what you are learning are never metered, on any plan.

You spend credits on one action: adding a new word to learn. The free plan covers about 50 a month, which is a regular week of watching. See plans for the rest.

Shows come from our catalog, so you cannot bring your own subtitle file or your own video yet. The catalog is small and growing, and that is the real limit of the product today.

If the show you are watching is not in it, write to support@wordspotting.app and ask for it. That is the fastest way to get a show added, and it tells us which ones to chase first.